| Research on Afro-American holdings and editions
Inventory of microfilm owned by the Afro.
Listing of Afro microfilm as entered into Guide as BMS 24.
Research notes:
Notes on titles and editions
http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/ecpdata/webroot/msaref14/html/afro_index.html
MSA SC5339-219-7
Notes from Hayward Farrer, The Baltimore Afro-American 1892-1950 (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1998).
p. 17: Philadelphia Afro started 1931; DC Afro 1934, Richmond Afro and Planet, 1938
p. 21: By 1950, 11 editions, distributed in BC, Philadelphia, Newark, NY, New England, Nationally
p. 23n16: Cite for court case: Edith Johnson v. Murphy, 1950 (see below)
Court Cases:
Edith Johnson v. Carl Murphy, et al.
The trial court papers appear to be missing. However, the Court of Appeals transcript contains a (nearly?) complete version of the lower court file. The case was dismissed by the Court
of Appeals; not
records and briefs were filed.
The suit was about the sale/distribution of stock by the Murphys so most of the case filings related to the papers finances. The bill of complaint does note that as of 1950 "The
Afro-American
Company...issue[s] and distribute[s] six editions on a weekly basis, namely, New England, New York, New Jersey, Richmond, Philadelphia, and National Editions, and four editions on
a semi-weekly basis,
namely, a Red Star, Five Star, and Seven Star edition, and the Washington Afro-Americn." This is inaccurate, as both the Five and Seven Star editions were published weekly in
Baltimore, and the Red Star
was the Washington edition, which was also a weekly.
There were also two other earlier suits: Thomson v. Murphy, filed in US District Court 22 July 1947, dismissed 5 May 1950, appeal denied by US Court of Appeals (Daily Record
20 Dec 1950; Edith
Johnson v. Murphy, BC Superior Court, filed 26 June 1950.
BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO.
2 (Equity Docket A, Miscellaneous) Johnson v. Murphy, 1950, 59A, case no. 30601A, pps. 256, 295, 444 [MSA T996-60, 1/40/10/53].
Mandate from C of A, Sept 1951.
BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2 (Equity Papers A, Miscellaneous) Johnson v. Murphy, 1950, case no. 30601A, box no. 49 [MSA T56-2418, 3/25/2/15]
File not in box
BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2 (Equity Papers A, Miscellaneous) Johnson v. Murphy, 1950, case no. 30601A, box no. 2385 [MSA T56-2262, 3/25/1/17]
Box contains a single page of transcript from the trial
COURT OF APPEALS (Transcripts) Johnson
v. Murphy, 1951, no. 40, MdHR 12,281-6 [MSA S434-200, 1/67/13/16].
COURT OF APPEALS (Misc. Papers)
Johnson v. Murphy, 1951, no. 40, MdHR 12,283-1 [MSA S397-130, 1/65/8/24].
Edith Johnson v. Murphy (first case)
BALTIMORE CITY SUPERIOR COURT (Cases Instituted) Edith Johnson v. Murphy, et al., 1950, pps. 815, 8442, SCL no. 2 MdHR 50,336-180 [MSA C1497-181,
2/16/14/22]
Case filed 26 June 1950. Court papers destroyed per court order, 1906.
Thompson v. Afro-American
92 F. Supp. 213 (1950)
185 F. 2d 1014 (1950)
Notes on editions
Taken from browsing mastheads
Five Star edition:
Five stars on masthead; dated Tuesday; distributed Tuesdays.
Late City edition:
Seven stars; dated Saturday, distributed Fridays. Changed to Blue Streak 10 October 1959. See note, front page, 10 Oct 1959.
Blue Streak edition:
Seven stars; dated Saturday, distributed Fridays. Possiblity reverted to Late City edition 22 August 1964--at that point the paper stopped carrying the Blue Streak name, but may still
have had the blue
border on the front page; it's hard to know since all scans of the paper are black and white. Not a major point either way.
National edition:
Eight or ten stars, probably depending on how widely it was distributed; still a little unclear on this; dated Saturday.
Red Star edition:
Washington, DC edition.
Two Star edition:
Not sure about this; pretty sure I've seen one though.
John Gartrell's notes from his Afro research:
Afro edition timeline
Afro project info
Afro respositories research notes
College listing
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